Diver Finds Camera Lost At Sea, Finds Familiar Face In Photos

diver finds camera lost at sea finds familiar face in photos losing something dear to your heart can be devastating after hoping and praying that we'll find it again most of us will let bygones be bygones and carry on with our lives and when we lose something that we're sure will never be recovered we are forced to give up on the search but sometimes fate lends a helping hand very occasionally though the impossible happens this was the case when a group of divers from the marine ecology department of canadian university stumbled across something that had been lost for years during a routine expedition the team's curiosity was so peaked that they began a search to locate the owner of the long-lost item on the morning of may 13 2014 the team from the marine ecology department at simon fraser university in british columbia canada was conducting a research dive to study the waters off the coast of banfield near vancouver island's west coast although the team had begun their day with a very specific goal in mind the purpose of that day's dive quickly changed [Music] the diving team was studying the many species of starfish in the area and had hoped to gain some insight into their behavior both in their own natural environment and in the school laboratory but in a strange turn of events something embedded in the seabed caught the eye of two students beau dougherty and tella osler noticed something on the sea floor that didn't look like it was part of the natural ecosystem it had hard edges and a leather strap that was waving in the current bow lifted it out of the sand and was astounded to see a round lens although it was a very old an algae and sea life had totally encrusted its rusted metal exterior it was still recognizable as a very old camera bose stashed the rusted camera in his pocket and continued with his research but he couldn't help but wonder who the old camera had belonged to professor isabel cote recalls the fateful find one of them picked it up and put it in his pocket and kept counting the starfish she said in an interview when they came up from the dive he said look what i found once the divers returned to the boat and beau revealed what he had found the camera immediately caught the attention of isabel's co-professor siobhan gray who also happened to be on the boat she was conducting her own research for the banfield marine sciences center and was intrigued by the camera as well as the fauna that was growing on its surface she decided to take it back to her lab for further investigation and she was not disappointed aside from the camera itself siobhan was most excited about the miniature ecosystem that was living on and inside the old camera when the camera was opened up to reveal its insides siobhan was ecstatic besides numerous species of algae she found a sea cucumber and two brittle stars similar to starfish living inside but as luck would have it that wasn't all she discovered amazingly the camera's memory card was still relatively intact now the whole diving team was more than intrigued although the sd card was covered in black algae the team hoped that it would still work even better there might be a few photographs that had survived maybe they could even identify and track the original owner my first thought about the camera was are there still images on the card siobhan said excitedly in the interview she could barely contain herself when discussing the possibility of what that card may hold siobhan carefully cleaned all the contacts of the memory card with an earbud and rubbing alcohol then she slotted it into her computer and held her breath and lo and behold it worked not only was the 8 gigabyte lexar platinum card still working but it still contained many videos and photos although siobhan was reluctant to scroll through someone's personal and secret memories she continued to look at the photos one by one unable to tear her eyes away the photos and videos were various people at many different get-togethers dating back as far as july 30th 2012. as exciting as it was looking at the photos just didn't feel right somehow photograph after photograph flashed before her eyes but long before she had reached the end she knew that something had to be done but what and more importantly how isabel and siobhan knew that they needed to do their best to track down the original owner but they had no idea that they were about to unlock a harrowing story isabel and siobhan knew that the best chance they had at finding the camera's owner was to take the photos to social media they began to tweet out some of the photographs using the hashtag detectives soon the photos had garnered hundreds of comments and retweets but despite the photo receiving a lot of attention no one came forward then they decided to try a different tactic siobhan and isabelle knew that they weren't getting any closer to locating the camera's owner on twitter eventually the team resorted to printing out the photos and posting them around the town and it wasn't long before a member of the navy recognized the man in the photo could he be the man they rescued from a shipwreck finally they had their first lead paul burgoyne was an artist from vancouver he had lost his boat in 2012 when it sank once the man was identified the navy officer tracked down his phone number in an attempt to get further information he took the camera in hopes of returning it to the man siobhan and isabel were thrilled that their search had finally yielded some results but would the story end here on the morning of may 21 2014 siobhan got the call that finally put an end to the mystery paul bergoyne was on the other end and said he was thrilled she explained he says when he got off the phone with the coast guard he and his wife were laughing a great deal and mentioned how lucky he was but it was only when siobhan heard his harrowing tale that she understood it turned out that paul was an extremely lucky man he told siobhan the story of how he had lost his camera on july 20th 2012 paul was sailing to his summer home in tulsa's british columbia his trip had gone without a hitch until he ran into a spot of bad weather with the sea growing turbulent his boat was thrown against some rocks he subsequently lost his camera in the wreck when paul's boat crashed against the rocks they smashed his hull apart paul found himself stranded in the freezing cold water and developed hypothermia it was lucky that patrons at a nearby inn spotted him and called the coast guard but it was only six hours later that he was rescued and brought back to shore paul was thankful that he made it out alive but he had lost hundreds of personal possessions in the wreck over the years and although it hurt him deeply he had grown to accept what had happened he was most heartbroken about his camera other possessions could be replaced but after he had gotten the call from the navy officer informing him that his camera had been found he couldn't believe his luck the photographs on paul's camera didn't depict an ordinary family reunion in fact they had been taken when he and his family had scattered his late mother's ashes and the photograph served as a reminder to be thankful after all he had nearly lost his life on the night that he had lost his camera siobhan and isabel were very careful to back up the contents of the sd card before they handed it over to the officer that card seems to be a little unlucky explained isabelle paul is delighted to have his precious memories back he never thought he would ever see those bittersweet photos ever again thankfully fate played a hand in getting them back to him paul is one lucky man